Yesterday, when President Obama and EPA administrator Gina McCarthy explained the importance of newly released rules on carbon pollution, they showed evidence of a growing trend we are monitoring at Climate Interactive: adopting a multiple benefits framework to address climate change. (We call it multisolving.) In addition to reductions in carbon pollution, they articulated the […]

There’s a big systems win to be found at the intersection of public health and urban design. There’s an even bigger win to be had by adding climate change and social justice to the picture. Doctors and public health officials are beginning to talk about urban design as determinant of health, and this way of […]

The struggle to protect a livable climate is a struggle to see, understand and act on our fundamental interconnections. This is familiar to the climate activist who knows her trips by car connect to the Earth’s atmosphere, which connect to patterns of rainfall decades from now on the other side of the planet. Seeing those […]

The core drivers of climate change cause other problems too. The good news is, for every problem there’s a group of people who would benefit from solving it. From the first exploratory survey for fossil fuels until the end of the century when today’s greenhouse gas emissions will still be influencing our planet, the fossil-fuel […]

Systems thinking points to ways to build on the momentum created by last Sunday’s People’s Climate March. For the global climate movement as a whole and certainly for the five Climate Interactive team members who were able to march in New York City on Sunday, the People’s Climate March was an exhilarating moment. We saw […]

As a panelist for a recent EPA-sponsored webcast on green infrastructure and resilience (click here for the slides from that presentation) I was prompted to explain why system dynamics computer simulation is particularly helpful for those considering infrastructure investment in general, and green infrastructure investment in particular. We have four reasons: 1. People need ways […]

“That’s another way we can ensure that traditional skills are passed on!” “If we modify the program we can include that whole group of kids we were forgetting!” “Should I invite the funders to come to the village from the start? Even if it’s not perfect they could see where they could help.” Exclamations like […]

With creativity and determination, communities can act and invest in ways that help adapt to climate change while also reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that would otherwise cause future climate change. I wrote about this possibility in a previous post, and since then people have been sending me examples of inspiring projects where adaptation reduces […]

Calls from US political leaders to address the root causes of climate change are rare enough to be worth noting and celebrating when they happen, so I was pleased to read about a letter to President Obama from five US senators from states most impacted by Hurricane Sandy. They wrote: “Superstorm Sandy, and the possibility of even […]